Tag: 1934

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Stars: Isuzu Yamada, Daijirô Natsukawa, Mitsusaburô Ramon
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

In Tokyo, Osen is the servant girl of an unscrupulous antiques dealer, Kumazawa, who takes in the penniless Sokichi Hata. Kumazawa mistreats Sokichi and Osen, while swindling some Buddhist monks out of their temple treasures. When Kumazawa is arrested, Osen agrees to help Sokichi finance his dream of going to medical school. They live in a humble room, and eventually the only way Osen can find enough money for them is to prostitute herself during the day, without Sokichi knowing.

Director: Willi Forst
Stars: Paula Wessely, Anton Walbrook, Olga Tschechowa
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Country: Austria | Germany

Vienna 1905: After a carnival party the famous painter Heidenick draws his otherwise engaged girlfriend Anita Helfer with very few clothes on, only blurs her face. The image makes it into the newspaper the next day – but since he can’t tell the model’s name without offending her influential fiancée, he comes up with the fictional name Leopoldine Dur. Unfortunately there is a secretary with that name, who now gets into the focus of high society – and into Heidenick’s, much to Anita’s anger.

Director: William Beaudine
Stars: W.C. Fields, Joe Morrison, Baby LeRoy
Genre: Comedy
Country: USA

The Great McGonigle and his troupe of third-rate vaudevillians manage to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors and the sheriff.

Director: Alan Crosland
Stars: Warren William, Mary Astor, Allen Jenkins
Genre: Adventure, Crime, Drama
Country: USA

An agitated and desperate man spares no expense in insisting that Mason represent him against a neighbor’s howling dog and act as executor of his will.

Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Stars: Aline MacMahon, Ann Dvorak, Preston Foster
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA

In the Mohave Desert, Olga runs a gas station, lunch counter, and auto camp with her younger sister Myra. In a 24-hour period, Olga must deal with Myra’s desire to go to a town dance with a cad, the appearance by happenstance of George, an old boyfriend whose conduct is never above suspicion, and the overnight presence of two women recently divorced in Reno, who, with a chauffeur, are carrying valuable jewels. George gets wind of the jewels and plays with Olga’s heartstrings to set up a robbery. Myra arranges to sneak off with her beau. It’s hot, and the heat lightening is crackling on the horizon. Is Olga’s life of peace and hard work in the desert about to change for the worse?

Director: Michael Curtiz
Stars: Kay Francis, Ricardo Cortez, Warner Oland
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA

Abandoned by her lover, a woman becomes the main “hostess” in a decadent nightclub, but tries to put her past behind her on a steamer to Mandalay.

Director: William Dieterle
Stars: Bette Davis, Donald Woods, Margaret Lindsay
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA

The lifestyles of Arlene and Valkyr Bradford, half-sisters from a respected San Francisco family, diverge markedly as Arlene takes up with criminals.

Director: Jacques Feyder
Stars: Marie Bell, Pierre Richard-Willm, Charles Vanel
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France

A romantic drama set against the background of the French Foreign Legion, and an example of poetic realism in the French cinema.

Director: Frank Borzage
Stars: Margaret Sullavan, Douglass Montgomery, Alan Hale
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

A young couple struggling against poverty must keep their marriage a secret in order for the husband to keep his job, as his boss doesn’t like to hire married men.

Director: Roy William Neill
Stars: Donald Cook, Genevieve Tobin, Hardie Albright
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Country: USA

Eight strangers are invited by a mysterious unknown host to spend the night in a penthouse apartment. The eight (5 men, 3 women) are wined, dined, then greeted by their host’s voice via a radio broadcast. The voice announces that before the night is over each one will be systematically murdered unless they manage to outwit their ninth guest Death.

Director: Mitchell Leisen
Stars: Fredric March, Evelyn Venable, Guy Standing
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Country: USA

The Grim Reaper takes the form of a Prince in an attempt to relate to humans and, along the way, also learns what it is to love.

Director: Yasujirô Ozu
Stars: Yûkichi Iwata, Mitsuko Yoshikawa, Den Ohinata
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan

Two half-brothers try to cope with the loss of their father.

Director: Harold Young
Stars: Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Country: UK

A noblewoman discovers her husband is The Scarlet Pimpernel, a vigilante who rescues aristocrats from the blade of the guillotine.

Director: Alan Crosland
Stars: Richard Barthelmess, Ann Dvorak, Dudley Digges
Genre: Drama
Country: France

Joe Thunderhorse, a Sioux Indian who has become the wealthy star of a Wild West show, returns home to his reservation after years away and finds that his father is dying and his people are being abused by corrupt white officials.

Director: Jean Renoir
Stars: Max Dearly, Valentine Tessier, Pierre Renoir
Genre: Drama
Country: France

Soon after the death of his first wife (whose dowry was inadequate), Charles Bovary, a country doctor in Normandy, marries Emma Rouault, who is well-endowed in every sense. In her new home, Emma finds conflict with her mother-in-law, a husband uninterested in the social whirl, and general discontentment; thereby proving an easy conquest for philanderer Rodolphe. Other lovers follow. Does tragedy await?

Director: Frank Tuttle
Stars: Cary Grant, Frances Drake, Edward Everett Horton
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Country: USA

The switchboard operator in an apartment building falls in love with a businessman who lives in the building, whom she has gotten to know only over the phone. When she discovers that the man’s current girlfriend is actually part of a scheme to swindle him out of some mineral rights he owns, she devises a plot to save him and expose the con artists.

Director: Raymond Bernard
Stars: Harry Baur, Charles Vanel, Paul Azaïs
Genre: Drama
Country: France

The lives of numerous people over the course of 20 years in 19th century France, weaved together by the story of an ex-convict named Jean Valjean on the run from an obsessive police inspector, who pursues him for only a minor offense.

Director: Mikio Naruse
Stars: Setsuko Shinobu, Akio Isono, Hikaru Yamanouchi
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan

Story of a waitress whose life, despite a host of male admirers and even some intrigued movie talent scouts, ends up taking a stiflingly domestic turn after a wealthy businessman accidentally hits her with his car.

Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Stars: Robert Montgomery, Maureen O’Sullivan, Edward Arnold
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: USA

Farmers take in an injured racketeer and try to reform him.

Director: Lewis Milestone
Stars: Victor McLaglen, Wynne Gibson, Alison Skipworth
Genre: Comedy
Country: USA

Alcoholic newspaperman Steve Bramley boards the San Capeador for a restful cruise, hoping to quit drinking and begin writing a book. Also on board are Steve’s friend Schulte, a private detective hoping to nab criminal Danny Checkett with a fortune in stolen bonds. Steve begins drinking, all the while observing the various stories of other passengers on board, several of whom turn out not to be who they seem to be.

Director: Lloyd Bacon
Stars: Al Jolson, Kay Francis, Dolores del Rio
Genre: Crime, Drama, Musical
Country: USA

Harry and Inez are a dance team at the Wonder Bar. Inez loves Harry, but he is in love with Liane, the wife of a wealthy business man. Al Wonder and the conductor/singer Tommy are in love with Inez. When Inez finds out, that Harry wants to leave Paris and is going to the USA with Liane she kills him.

Director: Mark SandrichRichard Boleslawski
Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady
Genre: Comedy, Musical, Romance
Country: USA

An American woman travels to England to seek a divorce from her absentee husband, where she meets – and falls for – a dashing performer.

Director: Edgar Selwyn, Richard Boleslawski
Stars: Robert Montgomery, Elizabeth Allan, Lewis Stone
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Country: USA

A jewel thief suspected of being a local serial killer targeting police officers decides to solve the mystery himself to clear his name.

Director: Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, Lee Garmes
Stars: Claude Rains, Margo, Whitney Bourne
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA

Prominent lawyer shoots unfaithful girlfriend during quarrel, has to establish alibi.

Director: Harlan Thompson
Stars: Cary Grant, Helen Mack, Genevieve Tobin
Genre: Comedy, Musical, Romance
Country: USA

A handsome plastic surgeon has a beauty clinic, where many a beautiful client falls in love with him. His unnoticed secretary is in love with him, too.

Director: Ray Enright, Busby Berkeley
Stars: Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler
Genre: Comedy, Music, Romance
Country: USA

A multimillionaire decides to boycott “filthy” forms of entertainment such as Broadway shows.

Director: John Cromwell
Stars: Bette Davis, Leslie Howard, Frances Dee
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA

A young man finds himself attracted to a cold and unfeeling waitress who may ultimately destroy them both.

Director: Yasujirô Shimazu
Stars: Yumeko Aizome, Ryôtarô Mizushima, Den Ohinata
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Japan

Keitaro (Obinata Den) is a law student and Yaeko (Aizome Yumeko) is a high school girl. They are neighbors, and their friendship is starting to develop into something more romantic. Then, Yaeko’s sister Kyouko (Okada Yoshiko) has a breakup with her husband and returns home. Kyouko is clearly interested in Keitaro and Yae becomes anxious.

Director: Mikhail Romm
Stars: Galina Sergeyeva, Andrey Fayt, Anatoliy Goryunov
Genre: Drama
Country: Soviet Union

A company of French bourgeois travel through the territories occupied by Germans in a stagecoach accompanied by a woman of the oldest profession.

Director: Edward Ludwig
Stars: Claude Rains, Joan Bennett, Lionel Atwill
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

A brilliant but impoverished writer, who is a pacifist, goes to work for a publisher and writes anti-war editorials. When he discovers that the publisher has betrayed him and is in league with munitions manufacturers to make money off of war, he goes insane.

Director: Erle C. Kenton
Stars: W.C. Fields, Joan Marsh, Buster Crabbe
Genre: Comedy
Country: USA

A hard-drinking, socially-awkward inventor wrecks his daughter’s chances of marriage into a rich family and bungles his own chances of success by selling one of his more practical inventions.

Director: Yonggang Wu
Stars: Lingyu Ruan, Tian Jian, Zhizhi Zhang
Genre: Drama
Country: China

Street walker by night, devoted mother by day, a woman fights to get her young son an education amid criminal and social injustice in China.

Director: Richard Boleslawski
Stars: Marion Davies, Gary Cooper, Jean Parker
Genre: Drama, History, Romance
Country: USA

Union spy Gail Loveless impersonates a black maid in the early days of the Civil War, but complications arise when she falls in love with a Confederate officer.

Director: William Dieterle
Stars: William Powell, Bette Davis, Frank McHugh
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Musical
Country: USA

When the Manhattan investment firm of Sherwood Nash goes broke, he joins forces with his partner Snap and fashion designer Lynn Mason to provide discount shops with cheap copies of Paris couture dresses.

Director: W.S. Van Dyke, George Cukor
Stars: Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA

The friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.

Director: King Vidor
Stars: Karen Morley, Tom Keene, John Qualen
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA

A group of down-on-their-luck workers combine their abilities to make a Gallafentian-style commune… and bread!

Director: Michael Curtiz
Stars: James Cagney, Bette Davis, Allen Jenkins
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: USA

An unpolished racketeer, whose racket is finding heirs for unclaimed fortunes, affects ethics and tea-drinking manners to win back the sweetheart who now works for his seemingly upright competitor.

Director: Rowland V. Lee
Stars: Robert Donat, Elissa Landi, Louis Calhern
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: USA

After greedy men have Edmound Dantes unjustly imprisoned for 20 years for innocently delivering a letter entrusted to him, he escapes to get his revenge on them.

Director: Marcel Pagnol
Stars: Orane Demazis, Fernandel, Henri Poupon
Genre: Drama
Country: France

A young and naive peasant girl in Provence, who has been seduced and abandoned, moves to Marseilles and becomes a street-walker after having her baby.

Director: Arcady Boytler, Raphael J. Sevilla
Stars: Andrea Palma, Domingo Soler, Francisco Zárraga
Genre: Drama
Country: Mexico

Rosario (Palma) becomes a prostitute after losing her father and discovering her boyfriend had a liaison with another woman. In Veracruz, Rosario lives above a sordid cabaret “selling her love to the men coming from the sea.” One night, sailor Alberto (Soler) rescues Rosario from the dirty hands of a drunk man. They get along and go to Rosario’s room. After making love, they begin to talk and Rosario discovers they’re siblings…

Director: Frank Borzage
Stars: Frankie Darro, George P. Breakston, Jimmy Butler
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

Adapted from The Paul Street Boys, an autobiographical novel by Ferenc Molnar, GLORY is an unusually sensitive evocation of the pain of youth and the senselessness of war. Frail Nemecsek, a lonely boy who yearns to belong, worships Boka, the self-sufficent, charismatic leader of a well-organized gang, decked out in uniforms and sporting their own flag. The perennial outsider sees his chance to win a respected place in Butler’s army when their flag is stolen and war breaks out with another gang.

Director: Fritz Lang
Stars: Charles Boyer, Madeleine Ozeray, Robert Arnoux
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Country: France

A carousel barker falls in love with a young woman. Both are fired from their jobs, and when the young woman becomes pregnant, the carousel barker tries to help pull off a robbery, which goes wrong. Because of the robbery, he dies, and after spending time in purgatory, is sent back to earth for one day to try to make amends. If he fails, he will be eternally damned.

Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Stars: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton
Genre: Comedy, Musical, Romance
Country: USA

When a small kingdom’s main tax payer leaves for Paris, its king dispatches a dashing count to win back her allegiance.

Director: Sidney Franklin
Stars: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Charles Laughton
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA

Elizabeth Barrett’s tyrannical father has forbidden any of his family to marry. Nevertheless, Elizabeth falls in love with the poet Robert Browning.

Director: Joe May
Stars: Gloria Swanson, John Boles, Douglass Montgomery
Genre: Comedy, Musical, Romance
Country: USA

Constantly quarreling couple decide to try the jealousy angle when a naive young couple comes along.

Director: Max Ophüls
Stars: Isa Miranda, Memo Benassi, Tatyana Pavlova
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy

Gaby is expelled from school after a married teacher commits suicide after telling her he can’t live without her. Though she has done nothing, she is punished for his act.

Director: John M. Stahl
Stars: Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Rochelle Hudson
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: USA

A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter; the two women start a successful business, but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.

Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Stars: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners
Genre: Adventure, Crime, Horror
Country: USA

American honeymooners in Hungary become trapped in the home of a Satan-worshiping priest when the bride is taken there for medical help following a road accident.

Director: Robert J. Flaherty
Stars: Colman ‘Tiger’ King, Maggie Dirrane, Michael Dirrane
Genre: Documentary
Country: UK

In this blend of documentary and fictional narrative from pioneering filmmaker Robert Flaherty, the everyday trials of life on Ireland’s unforgiving Aran Islands are captured with attention to naturalistic beauty and historical detail.

Director: Yasujirô Ozu
Stars: Takeshi Sakamoto, Chôko Iida, Kôji Mitsui
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan

A kabuki actor’s mistress hatches a jealous plot to bring down her lover’s son.